Thanks for sharing. I whinned to Sean about your review and it seems to have helped get your story pass the the longride.com filter.
Excellent analysis. I have to admit I want to love the Buell but fear I will be disappointed if I ride one and thus dive into my cynical triade about how American management is running this country with its bottom line short-term anti tech mentality. Your review has inspired me to go for it. Thanks pdad13. Good work
Fascinating, thanks for sharing this. I often look at the Buell site and the race kit and other accessory stuff intrigued me. I assume the variable valve tech you speak of is the muffler in the XB-12 which Motorcyclist said was a performance thing. Interesting that the race muffler doesn't have it i.e. must be pollution thing like you said. I wonder how much horse power and torque you have now. The synthetic oil is a good tip as well.
Thanks again, really interesting. Keep us Buell on the fencers updated.
"As opposed to what? The excellent management practices in Italy?" No I was thinking Japan. In a poll of a workers of a U.S. plant of a larget aerospace concern under possible sale, most would prefer that their plant be sold to a Japanese company. In fact many of those workers who had worked for a Japanese company before coming to this U.S. company, said Japanese management techniques were superior, less confrontational, and had good long-term vision. The average Japanese executive/manager gets paid a fraction of his U.S. counterpart but is 4 times more productive.
think folks are only referring to the engine when they say kludged. Every review I have read has complimented Buell on the chassis, suspension, fit and finish. But the Sportster/Blast based engine seems to the major complaint with everyone. Imagine the Buell with the Honda RC51 engine
Put a Honda or Suzuki Twin in this bike at it sells like crazy.
I agree its the engine. But Harley won't do anything about it. i.e short-term American management says "Hey we can sell them this way and make a profit why change". You know that at the price they are charging $10,000 the mark up is considerable. Consider the average Japanese Hi-Tech 600 ss is about $8000.
You make a great point. Right now they are a niche machine. Like you said if you put a liquid cooled V-Twin then they are open for side by side comparisions.
MO should put you on the staff or at least have you has a part-time contributor like sportbike_pilot. You really are a good communicator. Yes, I am jealous. Great points. You skillfully summarized the whole dilemma with Buell.
Some updates to your info. (Jet subhunter and new cargo plane)
"And the Navy still uses the lockheed turboprop Electra based Orion subhunters " This is about the change, Navy is about to select the winner of the new subhunter contract. One of the designs is based on a Boeing 737. See Multimission Maritime Aircraft
Also the C-17 jet is gradually replacing the role of both the C-130 and C-141. i.e. it can do both. see Boeing C-17 Globemaster III
North Korea is a concern as well. I think they tested a missle out to sea in the general direction of Japan once. Scared the crap out of Japan. North Korea has subs as well. They (North Korea) can't feed themselves but they can blow up things, go figure.
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